Violating first amendment

Unintended communication through social media may amount to a violation of a restraining order and does not get First Amendment protection, Maine’s Supreme Court has ruled, in an appeal case. Richard Heffron III, 39, of Bath, Maine, was convicted last year for violating a protection order arising from abuse. He did so by posting messages on his Facebook page about his former girlfriend that he was forbidden by state law to contact. In fact, at the time when the threatening rants were posted, the female victim was no longer his Facebook friend and has blocked him from her page. In Maine, just like in many other states in the US, a person may seek court protection to help stop domestic violence. A restraining order allows the protected person to ask for police intervention if the individual it targets tries to come near or communicate with them. Read more After Heffron’s posts popped up in the news flow of their shared Facebook friends, the ex-girlfriend reported it to … [Read more...] about Man’s Facebook rant about ex pops up on her feed, court rules it violated restraining order

President Donald Trump cannot block critics on Twitter as doing so violates their right to free speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution, a federal judge has ruled. The ruling from Judge Naomi Buchwald said that discussions arising from Mr Trump's tweets should be considered a public forum, as the messages are “governmental in nature". Judge Buchwald rejected an argument from the Justice Department that Mr Trump's own rights under the First Amendment aloowed him to block people with whom he did not want to interact with. Blocking users “as a result of the political views they have expressed is impermissible under the First Amendment,” Judge Buchwald wrote in the order, adding the president cannot use Twitter in a way “that infringes on the corresponding First Amendment rights of those who have criticized him”. A handful of Twitter users had sued after the president blocked … [Read more...] about Donald Trump can’t block people on Twitter because of First Amendment, judge rules

A judge ruled that Twitter serves as a ‘designated public forum’ and is protected under the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights. WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump is violating individuals’ constitutional rights by blocking them from his personal Twitter account, a federal court ruled on Wednesday, notching a victory for a group of seven users who alleged the president unlawfully barred them from viewing his feed. U.S. District Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled that Twitter serves as a “designated public forum” and is protected under the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights. Therefore, the judge added, their “exclusion” from the platform constitutes a breach of those rights. In a ruling issued Wednesday in the Southern District of New York, Buchwald wrote that Trump and one of his aides, White House director of social media Dan Scavino, cannot point to the president’s own First Amendment interests as … [Read more...] about Trump blocking Twitter users violates Constitution, judge rules

BOSTON -- A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging Massachusetts' ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, saying in a ruling released Friday that the weapons fall beyond the reach of the Second Amendment. U.S. District Judge William Young said assault weapons are military firearms and aren't protected by the constitutional right to "bear arms." Regulation of the weapons is a matter of policy, not for the courts, he said. "Other states are equally free to leave them unregulated and available to their law-abiding citizens," Young said. "These policy matters are simply not of constitutional moment. Americans are not afraid of bumptious, raucous and robust debate about these matters. We call it democracy." Democratic state Attorney General Maura Healey said the ruling "vindicates the right of the people of Massachusetts to protect themselves from these weapons of war." "Strong gun laws save lives, and we will not be intimidated by the gun lobby in our efforts to … [Read more...] about Assault weapons ban doesn’t violate 2nd Amendment, judge says

By Brendan Pierson NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge is expected to hear arguments on Thursday about whether President Donald Trump violated Twitter users’ free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution by blocking them from his account. The arguments before U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan are part of a lawsuit brought last July by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and several individual Twitter users. Trump and the plaintiffs are seeking summary judgment, asking Buchwald to decide the case in their favour without a trial. Twitter lets users post short snippets of text, called tweets. Other users may respond to those tweets. When one user blocks another, the blocked user cannot respond to the blocker’s tweets. The plaintiffs have accused Trump of blocking a number of accounts whose owners criticized, mocked or disagreed with him in replies to his tweets. They argued that Trump’s Twitter account, … [Read more...] about Judge to weigh whether Trump’s Twitter blocks violate First Amendment